From Fertility to Overall Health: Barriers and Catalysts to a Holistic Menstrual Health Perspective

Menstrual health is a crucial indicator of overall well-being because of its overlap with physical, mental, and social factors. However, many individuals have a narrow view of menstrual health that overlooks these connections, leading to limited health awareness and stigmatization. Through semi-structured interviews with 50 individuals across diverse menstrual experiences, we explore how menstrual health perspectives expand or contract over time as a result of encountering various digital and non-digital resources. We identify themes such as an overemphasis on topics like reproductive anatomy and hygiene, insufficient support for personal relevance, and a timing gap between people’s motivation to learn and the availability of content. Our findings stress the need for integrated educational curricula that cover diverse menstrual health experiences and the potential for digital innovations that increase access to such material to support continuous learning.